This proposal outlines a three part program, only the general features of which are given immediately below, that is designed to increase the potential of researchers to compete for research grants administered by NIH: (1) The first part is to provide initial funding for the establishment of the Center for Health and Behavioral Sciences Research. This will be a multidisciplinary unit encompassing the two research universities, North Dakota State University (NDSU) and the University of North Dakota (UND), the School of Medicine at the University of North Dakota, the Neuropsychiatric Research Institute and The Roger Maris Cancer Center, that will use the talents and experiences of established investigators in two capacities: mentoring roles for new researchers, and, coordinators of new multi-investigator research efforts. The primary initial objectives of both roles is to increase the number and quality of proposals submitted to NIH from North Dakota. The longer term objective is to provide a core of researchers sufficiently competitive that the Center will be self sustaining. This proposal includes requests for research project support for two researchers (Nawrot and O'Neill) at the Assistant Professor level that are representative of the less experienced fraction of the center and who have potential for competing at the national level. These researchers also reflect the two main thrusts of this center: behavioral neuroscience (Nawrot) and health psychology (O'Neill). (2) The second part of the program is focused on individual investigators in North Dakota with high potential for successfully competing for R01 grants. This IDeA proposal requests support for two representative projects we believe to have significant potential for successfully competing for R01 grants in the next few years. The investigators (Mallik & Pierce; Hulla) are Assistant Professors. With funds provided by North Dakota, a seed grant program will be initiated which will involve statewide solicitation and external peer review of grant proposals focused on health related research. We plan to fund six to twelve researchers through this seed grant program. (3) Infrastructure development at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine (UND SOM) is the third aspect of this program. North Dakota will provide, from its own resources, funding (salary, fringe and research support) for a new Chair and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, a new position, an Assistant Professor of Microbiology and lmmunology, and additional support funds for Dr. Hulla (see 2.). The major thrust of this enhancement program is to increase the competitiveness of researchers at SOM for NIH grants.